Tito Ortiz had knee surgery before fight with Forrest Griffin

There tend to be two types of athletes in the world – those who accept loss gracefully regardless of circumstance and those who offer up a variety of excuses in hopes of diminishing a defeat’s impact. Ask any longtime MMA fan and chances are good he/she can tell you which group now-retired light heavyweight Tito Ortiz resides in.

Ortiz, who tends to have a reason for every in-ring stumble other than simply being bested, was caught on film backstage at UFC 148discussing his performance against Forrest Griffin where he offered up an explanation for his suspect conditioning in the clash.

“My meniscus, I had 50% of it taken out eight weeks ago,” stated Ortiz to Nevada Athletic Commission officials in the latest video blog from Dana White. “It sucks when I can’t f*ckin do cardio. I didn’t run this whole camp. I couldn’t.”

Other noteworthy moments making the vlog include a surprisingly upbeat Chael Sonnen talking to a handful of folks after his knockout loss to Anderson Silva as well as White chewing out Griffin for his post-fight antics.

I’m not surprised to see that Chael was relatively upbeat following the loss. He had just completed his mission, getting the 2nd title shot that he spent tons of time & energy chasing (and of course the fat paycheck that came along with it). That whole “I’m the real champ / Anderson sucks / F Brazil” act had to be tiring, even for Chael. He’ll still be charasmatic & outspoken but he’s now able to move on from that chapter, which has to be a relief.

So just as I predicted before the event, everyone came out a winner – the fans got to see the grudge match, Anderson got to squash his nemesis in more dramatic fashion than the first time around, and Chael Sonnen got his 2nd title shot & big payday. Everybody went home happy that night, other than the people foolish enough to lay money on Sonnen.

I don’t see the problem with what Tito said. He hasn’t used an “excuse” since before the Hamill fight. He was asked about his cardio and explained why he didn’t have any. I didn’t hear anything in the ring or out the ring about how his meniscus was the reason he lost, just that that’s why his cardio sucked. I though he accepted his loss, thanked his fans and bowed out gracefully. If it wasn’t for Dana’s Vlog, this wouldn’t even be a story.